The Enchanting Village of Dalicone
19 September 2018 | Vanua Balavu, Fiji
Sandra
Vanua Balavu in the Northern Lau group is referred to as "The Exploring Islands" perhaps because it comprises a large reef around one main island and several small little islands which are wonderful to explore. After the rough upwind crossing to get here we arrived with pouring rain and fog but enough light to anchor in front of the main village of Dalicone. It's a beautiful seaside village with a sandy beach and colorful houses crawling up the grassy hillside and lush trees. We gathered our little bundle of kava and headed into the village to meet the chief for our Sevusevu. Trol, the young chief, welcomed us to the islands and gave us a walking tour of the village. We followed him up the muddy road on the hillside past beautifully cared for flowering shrub gardens to visit the school where we met all of the 20+/- students in the 4 classrooms. In Fiji, many of the villages have elementary schools but when the kids turn 13 they are sent to boarding schools in Suva. This particular village was hit very hard by cyclone Winston in 2016 losing many buildings including their school. The New Zealand government funded a new school for them which was built last year.
Kids from the 6 local villages on this island are bussed to school (in the back of big canvas covered trucks) everyday. It appears these are the only vehicles on the island. Across the school field was a preschool but the teacher was away on maternity leave. One little boy was playing in the field chasing a piece of paper. Mark (from Four Seasons) is a glider pilot so he folded the paper into a plane for the boy to fly. He was quite thrilled with that and ran around the field chasing the paper plane.
The only store on the island is in another village 30 minutes away by bus. As we left the school two big truck busses came by and out of each them hopped a group of women dressed in their multi color floral skirt and tops. They were burdened with bags of something and heading down to the village. We followed them and were told that all the women of the island were gathering for some kind of meeting, then a luncheon. After lunch they would be playing volleyball and invited Jude and I to join in. Of course we could not turn down this kind invitation. The volleyball game was a riot. The ladies had all changed from their lovely dresses into their team t-shirts and matching sulus and were actually very competitive. The shrieks of uninhibited laughter was a joy to hear. The ladies teased each other relentlessly and made dramatic rolls across the court and into surrounding bushes when they missed the ball. When the teams had finished their games they mixed up the groups and invited us to play with them. At one point all of the elderly ladies played, still in their floral dresses. One of them pretended to hobble out to the court like an old lady but then leapt into the air when the ball came to her bringing out hysterical laughter. At the end there were prizes for best player, best dressed player, and most sportsman like player. One village presented the other with a pile of floral fabric with a speech in Fijian which we didn't understand. Jude and I felt honored to have had the opportunity to take part in this event. We tried to inquire about the morning meeting to see if we could get some insight into the women's role in the village but we didn't learn anything. When we asked what the men were doing that day the reply was "lying around drinking grog". Some things are the same all over the world.
The following day we had planned to take the truck bus to the village of Lomolomo to pick up a few provisions. However, after walking up and down the hill and waiting we learned that the first bus left 1/2 hour before we were told and the 2nd bus didn't arrive. We would have to carry on without further provisions. In the village we asked a local if we could purchase some fruit from anyone. It just so happened that he had lots in his yard. Back up the steep hill we trodded following him to his new house. His old house was destroyed in the cyclone but they still used it for storage. The cyclone winds are so strong that they sent branches right through the concrete block houses. Most of his coconut trees were decapitated and one of them had a piece of metal roof material sticking through either side. He gave us some bananas and papaya but refused our offer of payment. We hadn't brought anything to trade since we thought we were going to the store in the other village. We did invite him to tea on our boat but he never did show up. So far the people of Fiji have been welcoming, generous and sincerely friendly.